Arthur W. Pink on Bare Justice

"The Gospel contemplates every descendant of Adam as a fallen, polluted, hell-deserving and helpless sinner. The grace which the Gospel publishes is his only hope. All stand before God convicted as transgressors of His holy law, as guilty and condemned criminals, who are not merely awaiting sentence, but the execution of sentence already passed upon them (John 3:18; Rom. 3:19)."

"To complain against the partiality of grace is suicidal. If the sinner insists upon bare justice, then the Lake of Fire must be his eternal portion. His only hope lies in bowing to the sentence which Divine justice has passed upon him, owning the absolute righteousness of it, casting himself on the mercy of God, and stretching forth empty hands to avail himself of the grace of God now made known to him in the Gospel."

~ Arthur Pink, "The Attributes of God"

There are many times many people think salvation is a matter of justice. Many think, "That person deserves Hell because he's so wicked." But like it or not, everyone's really wicked in God's sight. It does sound unfair to think that a morally good person goes to Hell but remember what Matthew 7:23 says, "I never knew you. Depart from me ye that worketh iniquity." It doesn't matter if it was just one sin or two, even one sin makes you a worker of iniquity. Some can say that they may not live like Antinomians but everyone has their own problem with sin. If you have sin, you're already considered a worker of iniquity by default.

Many times people want to sing of "Amazing Justice" instead of "Amazing Grace". I remembered reading Robert C. Sproul's book "The Holiness of God" which showed how many times people tend to sing this way, "Amazing justice, cruel and sharp/That wounds a saint like me/I'm so darn good it makes no sense/That tower fell on me." instead of "Amazing grace how sweet the sound/That saved a wretch like me/I once was lost but now am found/Was blind but now I see." While I don't deny some Christians can feel it that it's not fair that something bad happened to them but also unsaved people. They think because they do all the good they do that they don't deserve all the bad that's coming to them. They say, "But I've been good." but the reply to them is, "But we've all been naughty in God's list! We all deserve Hell. You don't go to Heaven just because people say you're good because in God's books, you're not a good person!"

Do yo know what bare justice would have done? It would provide no means of grace and forgiveness for the sinner. Could you imagine what if God decided to flood the Earth immediately without waiting for Methuselah to die? Noah would have drowned with his family. Many think that justice delayed is immediately justice denied but that is not always true. While there's the need to punish crime but there's also the right to a fair and just trial to make sure only guilty people get sentenced. Sometimes, God has a reason not to immediately execute final judgment as 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing that all should perish but come to repentance.